Impact of Self-Compassion on Existential Anxiety in Young Adults of Pakistan

It’s not much about the existential isolation but about our existential uniqueness, the feeling that no matter how deeply connected we are with someone, there is still an unbridgeable gap between every individual and all the elements of our perceived world which can’t be covered in any way possible. Young adulthood is an age where the self-creation process starts hence, the initiation of process of understanding life experiences, experimentation and exploration of meaning in life. All these processes comes with the consequences of overwhelming experiences of existential questioning, concern, and anxiety, leading to various other negative or positive psychological outcomes, depending upon the subjective experiences. Hence the current research was aimed to study the impact of self-compassion on existential anxiety in adolescents and young adults. The population consisted of both male and females (N=280). Current study is based on a quantitative correlation survey research design and the statistical analyses was done through SPSS (version 22). Neff’s Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF), and Existential anxiety questionnaire (EAQ) and Existential concern questionnaire (ECQ) scales were used. The statistical analysis involved Pearson product moment correlation, and Stepwise Regression. The finding of the study revealed that there was a significant weak negative relationship between Self-compassion and Existential Anxiety and a significant positive relationship between self-criticism and existential anxiety. Moreover, the isolation (subdomain of self-compassion) predicted 20.4% variance in level of Existential anxiety scale and 29.7% variance in Existential concern questionnaire. Following findings are significantly important regarding generating appropriate clinical interventions and provides beneficial insight into developing awareness programs on a community level

The Impact of Antihypertensive Agents on Health-Related Quality of Life of Hypertensive Patients

Chronic diseases and their treatment regimen plays a greater role in determining the patient related health outcomes of which one is Health Related Quality of Life. Hypertension itself along with its pharmacotherapy impacts HRQoL of hypertensive patients. The primary objective of the study was to determine the impact of f hypertensive medications on the health-related quality of life among hypertensive patients with the secondary objective to assess which medication significantly affects health related quality of life of hypertensive patients. A quantitative questionnaire based cross-sectional survey was undertaken in outpatient departments of Sandeman Provisional Hospital (SPH) Quetta using an EQ-5D-3L to determine the Health-Related Quality of Life. Convenience Sampling technique was used for data collection. Majority of respondents (8.7%) had no problem in first three domains while having some problem in pain and anxiety domains. Following them 7.6% of patients had some problems in all domains of the EQ5D tool. Moreover. the ACE Inhibitors and Diuretics impacts HRQoL of patients of current study. A total of 263 participated in the study of which (25%) of the respondents were of age group 48 -75 years old and were married 73.4% mostly. Majority (8.7%) had no problem in first three domains while having some problem in pain and anxiety domains. ACE Inhibitors and Diuretics significantly influence the health status of hypertensive patients acquiring pharmacotherapy. It was concluded that antihypertensive agents have a significant impact on HRQoL of hypertensive patients especially Angiotensin Converting Enzymes and Diuretics, which show significant impact on HRQoL of hypertensive patients. However, it is also suggested to assess the impact of antihypertensive therapies given in combination must also be studied in order to provide health professionals a better understanding of their prescribed regimen to improve patient related health outcomes

Objective analysis of neck muscle boundaries for cervical dystonia using ultrasound imaging and deep learning

Objective: To provide objective visualization and pattern analysis of neck muscle boundaries to inform and monitor treatment of cervical dystonia. Methods: We recorded transverse cervical ultrasound (US) images and whole-body motion analysis of sixty-one standing participants (35 cervical dystonia, 26 age matched controls). We manually annotated 3,272 US images sampling posture and the functional range of pitch, yaw, and roll head movements. Using previously validated methods, we used 60-fold cross validation to train, validate and test a deep neural network (U-net) to classify pixels to 13 categories (five paired neck muscles, skin, ligamentum nuchae, vertebra). For all participants for their normal standing posture, we segmented US images and classified condition (Dystonia/Control), sex and age (higher/lower) from segment boundaries. We performed an explanatory, visualization analysis of dystonia muscle-boundaries. Results: For all segments, agreement with manual labels was Dice Coefficient (64±21%) and Hausdorff Distance (5.7±4 mm). For deep muscle layers, boundaries predicted central injection sites with average precision 94±3%. Using leave-one-out cross-validation, a support-vector-machine classified condition, sex, and age from predicted muscle boundaries at accuracy 70.5%, 67.2%, 52.4% respectively, exceeding classification by manual labels. From muscle boundaries, Dystonia clustered optimally into three sub-groups. These sub-groups are visualized and explained by three eigen-patterns which correlate significantly with truncal and head posture. Conclusion: Using US, neck muscle shape alone discriminates dystonia from healthy controls. Significance: Using deep learning, US imaging allows online, automated visualization, and diagnostic analysis of cervical dystonia and segmentation of individual muscles for targeted injection. The dataset is available (DOI: 10.23634/MMUDR.00624643)

Stability and safety analysis of statin-loaded nano-films for the treatment of diabetic wound

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease that delays the regular stages of the wound’s healing process due to delayed inflammatory stages. Due to foot pressure points, chronic foot wounds are ultimately considered the primary cause of lower leg amputation. Diabetic patients have vascular dysfunction and neuropathy, leading to inadequate oxygen supply to the wound area. Statins have a crucial role in the regulation of angiogenesis that could increase vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) synthesis. By offering a localized treatment approach while minimizing systemic side effects associated with oral medication, this study aimed to develop statin-loaded nanofilms to determine their stability and safety among healthy individuals as a potential procedure for diabetic wound healing. Simvastatin (SIM) loaded nanofilms formulations (F1-F10) were prepared using the solvent casting method. The formulation was optimized based on tests such as physical appearance, tensile strength, microscopic photographs, morphology, and drug content uniformity. ICH guidelines were followed to determine various parameters (physical appearances, tensile strength, microscopic photographs, morphology, and drug content uniformity) for six-month stability study at three different storage conditions. Safety analysis of the nanofilms was performed on healthy human skin using the Draize skin irritation test. Results showed F7 formulation was considered an optimized formulation as well as stable through the storage period at 4 ± 2°C, 25 ± 2°C, and 40 ± 2 °C. Furthermore, Primary Irritation Index results (PII was 0 showed no irritation in case and control groups) indicate its safety and biocompatibility to skin. Thus, the optimized statin-loaded nanofilm is stable, safe, and non-toxic, which may be used as a potential diabetic wound healing agent

Carbapenem Resistance: Mechanisms and Drivers of Global Menace

The emergence of carbapenem-resistant bacterial pathogens is a significant and mounting health concern across the globe. At present, carbapenem resistance (CR) is considered as one of the most concerning resistance mechanisms and mainly found in gram-negative bacteria of the Enterobacteriaceae family. Although carbapenem resistance has been recognized in Enterobacteriaceae from last 20 years or so, recently it emerged as a global health issue as CR clonal dissemination of various Enterobacteriaceae members especially E. coli, and Klebsiella pneumoniae are reported from across the globe at an alarming rate. Phenotypically, carbapenems resistance is in due to the two key mechanisms, like structural mutation coupled with β-lactamase production and the ability of the pathogen to produce carbapenemases which ultimately hydrolyze the carbapenem. Additionally, penicillin-binding protein modification and efflux pumps are also responsible for the development of carbapenem resistance. Carbapenemases are classified into different classes which include Ambler classes A, B, and D. Several mobile genetic elements (MGEs) have their potential role in carbapenem resistance like Tn4401, Class I integrons, IncFIIK2, IncF1A, and IncI2. Taking together, resistance against carbapenems is continuously evolving and posing a significant health threat to the community. Variable mechanisms that are associated with carbapenem resistance, different MGEs, and supplementary mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in association with virulence factors are expanding day by day. Timely demonstration of this global health concern by using molecular tools, epidemiological investigations, and screening may permit the suitable measures to control this public health menace

Posttransplant MRD and T-cell chimerism status predict outcomes in patients who received allografts for AML/MDS

Allogeneic stem-cell transplant allows for the delivery of curative graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia/myelodysplasia (AML/MDS). Surveillance of T-cell chimerism, measurable residual disease (MRD) and blast HLA-DR expression may inform whether GVL effectiveness is reduced. We report here the prognostic impact of these biomarkers in patients allografted for AML/MDS. One hundred eighty-seven patients from FIGARO, a randomized trial of reduced-intensity conditioning regimens in AML/MDS, were alive and relapse-free at the first MRD time-point and provided monitoring samples for flow cytometric MRD and T-cell chimerism, requested to month+12. Twenty-nine (15.5%) patients had at least 1 MRD-positive result posttransplant. MRD-positivity was associated with reduced overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio [HR], 2.18; P = .0028) as a time-varying Cox variable and remained significant irrespective of pretransplant MRD status in multivariate analyses (P < .001). Ninety-four patients had sequential MRD with T-cell chimerism results at months+3/+6. Patients with full donor T-cell chimerism (FDTC) had an improved OS as compared with patients with mixed donor T-cell chimerism (MDTC) (adjusted HR=0.4; P = .0019). In patients with MDTC (month+3 or +6), MRD-positivity was associated with a decreased 2-year OS (34.3%) vs MRD-negativity (71.4%) (P = .001). In contrast, in the group with FDTC, MRD was infrequent and did not affect the outcome. Among patients with posttransplant MRD-positivity, decreased HLA-DR expression on blasts significantly reduced OS, supporting this as a mechanism for GVL escape. In conclusion, posttransplant MRD is an important predictor of the outcome in patients allografted for AML/MDS and is most informative when combined with T-cell chimerism results, underlining the importance of a GVL effect in AML/MDS

Antioxidant, Cytotoxic, and Antimicrobial Potential of Silver Nanoparticles Synthesized using Tradescantia pallida Extract

Silver nanoparticles have received much attention, due to their wide range of biological applications as an alternative therapy for disease conditions utilizing the nanobiotechnology domain for synthesis. The current study was performed to examine the antioxidant, anticancer, antibacterial, and antifungal potential of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles (TpAgNPs) using plant extract. The TpAgNPs were produced by reacting the Tradescantia pallida extract and AgNO3 solution in nine various concentration ratios subjected to bioactivities profiling. According to the current findings, plant extract comprising phenolics, flavonoids, and especially anthocyanins played a critical role in the production of TpAgNPs. UV–visible spectroscopy also validated the TpAgNP formation in the peak range of 401–441 nm. Further, the silver ion stabilization by phytochemicals, face-centered cubic structure, crystal size, and spherical morphology of TpAgNPs were analyzed by FTIR, XRD, and SEM. Among all TpAgNPs, the biosynthesized TpAgNP6 with a medium concentration ratio (5:10) and the plant extract had effective antioxidant potentials of 77.2 ± 1.0% and 45.1 ± 0.5% free radical scavenging activity, respectively. The cytotoxic activity of TpAgNP6 in comparison to plant extract for the rhabdomyosarcoma cell line was significantly the lowest with IC50 values of 81.5 ± 1.9 and 90.59 ± 1.6 μg/ml and cell viability % of 24.3 ± 1.62 and 27.4 ± 1.05, respectively. The antibacterial and antifungal results of TpAgNPs revealed significant improvement in comparison to plant extract, i.e., minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) 64 μg/ml against Gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa while, in the case of antifungal assay, TpAgNP6 was active against Candida parapsilosis. These TpAgNPs play a crucial role in determining the therapeutic potential of T. pallida due to their biological efficacy

Comparative arsenic tolerance and accumulation potential between wild Tagetes patula and Tagetes minuta

Arsenic (As) is a bioactive metalloid that is highly toxic to humans, animals, and plants. Environmental contamination of As especially in groundwater increases due to natural and anthropogenic activities. The present study was performed to evaluate the potential of wild Tagetes species for the phytoremediation of As contaminated soil/water. This comparative research aims to analyze As accumulation and tolerance in two wild species of Tagetes, T. minuta and T. patula. The 20 days old seedlings were grown hydroponically and exposed to the different concentrations of As, 0, 50, 150, and 300 µM As2 O3 for 1-, 4- and 7- days intervals.Effect of As stress was measured on the rate of seed germination, growth parameters like fresh and dry biomass weight, root/shoot length, chlorophyll contents and As contents in root and shoot in both Tagetes species. Increasing concentration of As restricts the growth activity of T. minuta with toxicity symptoms on leaves such as chlorosis. Accumulation of As in the shoot was significantly (p ≤ 0.01) high (634 µg g-1 DW) in T. patula as compared to T. minuta (397 µg g-1 DW) at 300 µM As2 O3 . Both Tagetes species exhibited high variation for As tolerance parameters as well as for As accumulation patterns. Comparatively good tolerance and accumulation of As in T. patula suggests that this species could be used in phytoextraction and re-vegetation in As contaminated sites